


Oh Lazarus

by elwon



Series: JayDick Flash Fic [29]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Dick's being stalked by a cryptid, Kissing, M/M, after-effects of Lazarus Pit use, jaydick-flashfic: lazarus, there's singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23546053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elwon/pseuds/elwon
Summary: There’s a cryptid with glowing eyes stalking Dick around Blüdhaven. Dick thinks it’s a local legend come to life. Jason doesn’t disabuse him of the notion.
Relationships: Jason Todd/Dick Grayson
Series: JayDick Flash Fic [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1270460
Comments: 18
Kudos: 241
Collections: Jaydick Flash Fanwork Challenge





	Oh Lazarus

**Author's Note:**

> Song referenced is Blood On My Name by the Brothers Bright. The title was taken from the same song!

The first time Dick notices he’s being followed, he catches sight of two green, glowing eyes deep in a shadow across the alley from him. Dick simply stares back; he’s in his Nightwing uniform, if it’s a meta wanting to fight, Dick’s ready to take it on. But whoever, whatever it is, does nothing, content to watch Dick walk along the alley. When Dick’s reaches the mouth of the alley, he’s about to call out. Only before he can, a mugger tries to steal a lady’s purse right in front of him. When Dick turns back to look in the alley once he’s dealt with the dumbass mugger, the eyes are gone.

***

The second time Dick notices he’s being followed, the green glowing eyes are accompanied by a humming of a tune that Dick’s not familiar with. Dick’s taken down a drug dealer, zip-tying the guy, setting off the protocol in his mask to ping the BPD that he’s left someone for pick up. Looking up, he sees the glowing eyes, their colour bright against the deep dark gloom of the alley. Dick goes into the alley, hands on the ends of his escrima sticks. 

“Hey... Enjoy the show?” Dick says, smile on his face despite that anyone human wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark.

“Oh Lazarus, how did your debts get paid?” Comes the quiet singing. Dick frowns, and before he can say anything the green eyes close or wink out. Whatever happens, the eyes are gone, the singing stops, and all Dick can hear are police sirens closing in and the wind, or someone grappeling up to the rooftops nearby. Dick scrambles to follow, but when his feet touchdown on the rooftop, there’s no one to be seen.

***

The third time Dick notices he’s being followed, he actually hears the singing first. It’s quiet enough that he can’t really make out the words beyond the phrase “When the hounds of hell are after you...”

Dick pauses, turning to pinpoint the location of the singer, his own personal cryptid that Dick’s taken to calling ‘Lazarus’ for lack of a better name. High above him on a fire escape, he spots a figure shrouded in black shadows, his bright green glowing eyes the only thing giving him away. Dick doesn’t need more than half a second to calculate that ‘Lazarus’ is at least six feet tall.

“Hi!” Dick calls out to the figure, who steps back the second Dick speaks. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this, people will talk!”

Unsurprisingly, Lazarus is even less talkative that Batman on patrol, but his green eyes still glow, focused on Dick. The green is joined by a tiny yellow light and Dick wonders if it’s the cryptid’s mouth; that is until the yellow light drops down closer to the railing on the fire escape. A cigarette? His cryptid Lazarus smokes? How oddly mundane.

Dick blinks while his eyes follow the trail of cigarette smoke, and Lazarus disappears.

***

Obviously, the thing to do now is investigate Blüdhaven’s local legends, seeing if anything matches up to Lazarus. An old whaling town like Blüdhaven has its fair share of ghost stories and legends that are easily disproved with facts, but while Dick’s discovered more than a few interesting and tragic ends between members of the old elite, he’s found nothing about glowing green eyes. So either Lazarus is new, or a meta. Dick’s not sure which he’s hoping for. 

But to be honest, it’s a relaxing distraction from the thirty seven open cases he has as Nightwing. Murders, arsons and robberies, all with a loss of human life that makes Dick want to scream, yank at his hair, take a long shower and nap before he so much as glances at the folders piling up on his coffee table. The guilt at being unable to solve each and every one weighs heavily on his conscience. By contrast, a cryptid that randomly follows him, not causing any trouble, is a nice breather.

Dick startles when his cell vibrates on the table, nudging it into the base of the glass of water he’s totally forgotten to drink while he forced himself to read through his files for something, anything, he might have missed. He grabs it, eyebrows rising when he sees Jason’s name flashing on the screen.

“Jason?” Dick says, trying to remember the last time Jason willingly called him. “What’s wrong, are you OK?”

“Dickie.” Jason’s low deep voice comes through the speaker, and Dick feels his shoulders relax despite themselves. “Calm down, everyone’s fine. No one’s dying.”

“Good.” Dick nods, flopping back to lie on his sofa. “So, what’s up? You don’t usually call me if you can ever help it.”

“I call you.” Jason protests lazily. “I’m calling you right _now_.” 

“Uh huh. And to what do I owe the pleasure.” Dick sighs, wiggling down in the cushions and hoping that Jason’s calling to catch up, just so that Dick can listen to that wonderful deep rumble and... No, he can’t perv on Jason’s voice right now, not when Jason’s called him in the first time in what feels like forever. 

“I heard a rumour from our favourite hacker that you’re doing occult investigations? Apparently you’re trying to Buzzfeed Unsolved it up over there, and frankly I’m hurt you didn’t invite me along.” Jason says violently cheerfully. “I mean I’m never going to pass up a chance to yell out ‘hey demons, it’s me, ya boi!’”

“I think Oracle vastly overstated it.” Dick laughs, imagining Jason walking into an old murder site and screaming just that. “I think a cryptid’s been following me, and I’m just trying to ID it. That’s all.”

“Oh. You want help anyway?” Jason says, clearly disappointed. “To be honest, I need an excuse to get out of Gotham for a few days. Batman’s being ...Batman at me.”

“Wait, you’re willing to spend some quality bonding time with me to get away from Bruce?” Dick says, staring up at the ceiling and wondering exactly how Bruce is wrong footing himself this time.

“You’re going to make me regret this, aren’t you?” Jason groans over the phone line and Dick grins widely.

“Absolutely. Come over whenever!” Dick says, and Jason hangs up without a goodbye. Dick doesn’t mind. He’s pretty sure Jason’s probably already on his way over.

***

“Damn, dude. Did you even clean up when I told you I was coming over?” Jason mutters staring at the piles of file folders and unwashed laundry that have taken over Dick’s living room.

“You didn’t give me much warning, Jay.” Dick protests, grabbing at pair of underwear he doesn’t want Jason to see. Or not so much that he doesn’t want Jason to see them... It’s more that he doesn’t want Jason to see them until Dick’s _wearing_ them.

“Looks like you didn’t even try, Dickie.” Jason pauses looking up from where Dick had discarded a pair of uniform gloves and never bothered to pick them back up again. “I’m worried about the state of your kitchen now.”

“My kitchen is fine!” Dick says, affronted. “It’s clean and everything!”

“That has to be seen to be believed.” Jason says with a raised eyebrow that he must have learnt from Alfred.

“See for yourself!” Dick says, throwing his arms dramatically widely. “And then you can beg for my forgiveness for the insult.”

“Yeeeaah. No, that’s never gonna happen.” Jason rolls his eyes walking past Dick to head into his kitchen. Dick waits a few moments, counting down until he hears Jason’s “What the fuck?!”

“Told you!” Dick sings out, feeling exceptionally pleased with himself.

“Everywhere is clean. But only because you haven’t used this place since Alfred last cleaned it!” Jason says popping his head out of the kitchen doorway.

“How could you possibly know that?” Dick says flabbergasted.

“The sheer amount of takeout and pizza boxes in your trash.” Jason says shaking his head at Dick in disappointment. “It’s the only place that’s filthy. Also? Alfred put up a chart for you to tick off that you’ve cleaned the kitchen on your own. A month ago. You haven’t made a single checkmark.”

“Uh...” Dick blinks at Jason, feeling caught out.

“Honestly, what are you, eight? You seriously need a chore chart?” Jason turns away. “I mean I guess _not_ since you haven’t used it, but oh my sweet fuck.” 

“I’ve been busy!” Dick says, rushing after him. “And if I succeed at keeping the place clean Alfred’s going to make me his crab stuffed mushrooms!”

“Dick...” Jason sighs. “It doesn’t count if you’re not _using_ the kitchen.”

“Don’t you dare tell!” Dick says poking Jason in the chest and trying to ignore how damn firm Jason’s pecs are. He’s not even wearing any body armour under the leather jacket. “Or I’ll tell Bruce you came here to escape him.”

“Harsh. But fine. We’ll keep each other’s secrets.” Jason sighs. But Dick doesn’t trust that for a second. Jason will definitely tattle to Alfred.

“Really?” Dick says, poking Jason again.

“Yes!” Jason sighs, knocking away Dick’s finger. “I’ll even clean up for you after I cook tonight. Deal?”

“Deal.” Dick grins. No cleaning, Jason cooking, _and_ he gets company tonight? This is the best night Dick’s had in a while!

***

Dick shimmies in through his window after patrol. He didn’t see Lazarus tonight, but he doesn’t mind. Not after the great meal Jason had cooked for them both. And the fact that Dick didn’t need to clean up? Bonus.

Jason had taken his alternate Wednesday route, a shorter one that he takes the rest of the week, so he should already be back, and cleaning the kitchen as promised. Dick strips off his uniform, pulling on loose boxer shorts before wandering out of the bedroom to grab a post patrol drink. He can hear quiet clattering in his kitchen, proving that Jason is indeed cleaning.

Dick pushes the door open; slightly surprised that Jason hasn’t turned the lights on. He freezes as he sees glowing green eyes _in his kitchen_. His hyper trained vigilante brain kicks back into gear and he does exactly what he’s been trained to do. Or at least that’s what he’ll say if anyone asks. What he actually does is shriek in a high pitched voice, and throw the closest thing at hand towards Lazarus.

“What the fuck, Dick!” Jason yells back, mug of cold coffee dripping down his face. Dick opens his eyes, still seeing the glowing eyes. He blindly reaches for the light switch and they both wince as the harsh fluorescent lights come on.

“...Jason?” Dick squints, staring at his pissed off unsure-of-current-relationship-person, who yes, is currently dripping cold coffee onto the nice clean floor.

“No, I’m the Loch Ness monster. What the fuck?” Jason snarls, handsome face wet.

“I thought you were the cryptid!” Dick blushes, holding his hands up peaceably.

“What? Why?” Jason stares at him.

“Uh. Your eyes glowed green just like the cryptid’s do!” Dick bites his lip. A thought occurs to him. “Uh, Jason... Have you maybe been coming by when I’m on patrol but not actually speaking to me? Singing a song about Lazarus?”

“Yeah, a couple of times.” Jason blinks coffee out of his eyes. “Flaked out, I guess. Why?”

“Um. You’re my cryptid.” Dick says, his mouth twisting as he tries not to laugh. Because, of course it was Jason.

“What.” Jason says flatly, coffee still dripping. “I’m not clearing this up by the way.”

“Fair, but...” Dick bites his lip, hard.

“No.” Jason mutters. “I try to be nice, get accused of being a cryptid, I dunno _why_ I want to date you.”

“But I want to date you too.” Dick blurts out. Seconds later he’s receiving the best coffee-flavoured kiss of his life. “So that’s a yes to another date?”

“Another?” Jason breathes, glowing eyes staring into Dick’s. “So tonight was our first then?”

“Yes!” Dick laughs, leaning in for another amazing kiss.


End file.
